Without sufficient process, Paonia Board of Trustees has decided to spend more than $20,000 on an art project in the park, commissioning the work from Trustee Bradford's personally chosen, out-of-town source. Doing business in a meeting no one attends is not the same as seeking public involvement. No effort was made to include public input on the project's design. Not a single Paonia artist was given the opportunity to bid on the project. Paonia has many talented and capable artists (are we not the new home of Space to Create?). Not one of them was given an opportunity to propose a design or bid on the project. The only trustee aware enough to see a problem with the exclusion of public process and local artists is Suzanne Watson. When she addressed the issue, the rest of the board looked at her as if she was speaking Latin, proving again, it's not what you say, but who says it that counts.

We are constantly bombarded with news of the town's dire financial condition. Due to lack of funding the maintenance contract for the parks was terminated two years early, but Paonia has money for Mr. Bradford's art project? If this is the way the Paonia Board of Trustees spends money while we're watching, what's going on we don't know about? Not a lot has changed since the Kristin Chesnik days. People are playing fast and loose with the money. Not enough oversight. Not enough ethics. Vote them all out.